Amateur Waterwork Until Damaged Water Pipes In Gambir, PAM Admits Huge Losses

The work of crossing the waterways in the DKI Water Resources (SDA) project on Batu Ceper Street, Gambir, Central Jakarta, damaged the pipeline of the integrated utility network (SJUT) and the PAM Jaya water pipe./PHOTO: Diah Ayu-VOI

JAKARTA - The work of crossing the water channel at the DKI Water Resources Service (SDA) project on Batu Ceper Street, Gambir, Central Jakarta, damaged the pipe for the integrated utility network facility (SJUT) and the PAM Jaya water pipe.

This condition became the finding of the Chairman of DPRD DKI Jakarta Prasetyo Edi Marsudi who initially saw damage to some roads in Batu Ceper. After investigation, it turned out that the cause was the negligence of the contractor employed by the SDA Office in the excavation project.

Since this afternoon, the ranks of the Central Jakarta City Government, the SDA Service, and PAM Jaya have immediately made repairs to the damage.

Met at the location, the Main Director of Perumda PAM Jaya Arief Nasrudin looked worried. Not without reason. According to Arief, this leak caused PAM a big loss because their service water was wasted and did not enter the customer's account.

"The water leak cannot be counted at this rate. It's difficult. What's certain is that PAM will suffer big losses," said Arief on Jalan Batu Ceper, Kebon Kelapa, Central Jakarta, Friday, March 24.

He ordered his men to move quickly to fix it by installing new pipes. From this incident, piped water services to consumers around Jalan Batu Ceper were stopped because they were under repair. This was acknowledged by the Main Director of PAM Jaya Arief Nasrudin.

"I turn off the valve (piping faucet) there. If it doesn't (stop it), we can't fix the pipe as well. The work takes about 1 x 24 hours," said Arief.

In the same place, Central Jakarta Mayor Dhany Sukma admitted that the cause of this problem was the contractor's carelessness in carrying out the waterway crossing work.

"Initially, we wanted to connect small canals with long storage so that the flow of water flowing from the small canals to the large canals would be smoother so there would be no potential for blockages. It's just that, in the implementation, there were inaccuracies," explained Dhany.

Dhany said that the contractor for the water canal project employed by the DKI SDA Agency was digging the water canal connection using an excavator, so he also dismantled and damaged the SJUT and the nearby PAM pipe connection.

"This is actually enough with manual work, no need to use heavy equipment. When heavy equipment is used, eventually the entire utility network there is cut off," explained Dhany.

"We can see that the PAM pipe network is cut off, and broken, the water is everywhere. Then the fiber optic to distribute the internet, which will indeed be relocated from above (air) to below (ground), because something like this will eventually all be blocked," he continued.